Although the land and building tax will be implemented at the beginning of next year, tax filing for the measure will be scheduled for August instead of April because of some uncompleted organic laws, says the Fiscal Policy Office (FPO).
The Interior Ministry, which shares responsibility for issuing ministerial regulations for the land and building tax, has requested the postponement because the process of surveying and evaluating lands and properties of local administrative organisations is not finished, said FPO director-general Lavaron Sangsnit.
The land and building tax will still come into effect early next year, he said, but citizens liable for tax payment will have a four-month postponement for local administrative organisations to evaluate asset prices before informing asset holders for tax payment.
There are 19 organic laws for the tax measure, with eight overseen by the Finance Ministry, six managed by the Interior Ministry and the rest shared by the two ministries.
The FPO estimates revenue generated from the land and building tax at 40 billion baht for next year's tax collection, Mr Lavaron said.
Starting from Jan 1, the land and buildings tax replaces the house and land tax and the local development tax.
The new property tax, which is a means by which the government hopes it can reduce income disparity and the alleviate fiscal burden in subsidising local administrative organisations, is applied to residences, farmland, commercial areas and undeveloped land.
According to the new tax structure, land and buildings used for residences with appraisal prices of up to 50 million baht are tax-exempt for principal homes, while those valued at more than 50-75 million baht are taxed at 0.03% of appraisal prices, more than 75-100 million baht at 0.05% and more than 100 million baht at 0.1%.
Those who only own houses, but not land, qualify for a tax exemption for the first 10 million baht of their houses' appraisal prices. Residences with appraised value of more than 10-50 million baht are charged 0.02%, more than 50-75 million baht at 0.03%, more than 75-100 million baht at 0.05%, and more than 100 million baht at 0.1%.
If owners have more than one home, the second and subsequent residences are subject to a 0.02% tax for those with an appraisal price of up to 50 million baht, and the same tax rate as principal homes is applied for those with appraisal prices above 50 million baht.